One of the area's top providers of engineering, environmental and planning services, Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc., is choosing Downtown Orlando for its future expansion, signing a deal last week to move its local office to The Plaza Tower complex on S. Orange Avenue.

"This is a great way to serve our clients and contribute to the city's vibrant and growing downtown," principal Jay Jackson told GrowthSpotter on Thursday. "We've been in Orlando for 20 years, and moving downtown gets us closer to partnering with agencies, companies and clients. We also have a lot of younger professionals who really prefer the urban environment."

Kimley-Horn will be taking 40,000 square feet on The Plaza South tower's 10th floor for its staff of more than 100. The company is preparing to pull construction permits soon from the city for renovation work, Jackson said, and could complete the move in October.

The company has been in the Corporate Park buildings at 3660 Maguire Blvd., northeast of Fashion Square Mall, for more than a decade. Its footprint has grown to 25,900 square feet over two floors there.

That soon to be vacant space will be marketed for lease by Robert Kellogg of Colliers International.

The 40,000-square-foot lease further supports investment in building new large office blocks in Downtown Orlando by developer West Second Street Associates at 500 N. Orange Ave., and the city's recent tax incentives offer to Lincoln Property Company for its planned 28-story Tremont Plaza mixed-use tower.